January
- Sign up for online catalogs if your mailbox isn’t already overflowing!
- Place orders for seeds to get your favorites before they sell out!
- Last chance to plant the bulbs that you forgot about (as long as the ground isn’t frozen).
- Remove yellowing foliage and pinch back annuals and tropicals overwintering indoors.
- Rotate houseplants to keep them lush on all sides.
- Check your houseplants for insects and/or disease and treat immediately.
- Clean the foliage on your houseplants by dusting, misting or a warm water bath.
- Repot houseplants that are overgrown or leggy.
- Stock up on seed starting mix, fertilizer, deer repellent and other supplies you may need come spring.
- Order online containers, tomato cages, trellises, and other supports as stock may be limited.
- Binge watch some gardening YouTube and peruse those gardening books and magazines you’ve put off reading.
- Use the January thaw as incentive to go outside and pull up winter weeds such as chickweed and dig out wild onions.
- Purchase an inexpensive herb or mini orchid at Trader Joe’s to put on your windowsill.
- Keep putting out food and water for the birds.
December
Maintenance
Houseplants/ Indoor Gardening
- Prune off dead branches and shape fruit trees, pines, hollies, roses and other shrubs.
- Cut stems of berried winter shrubs and evergreen leaves for winter decoration.
- Prune climbing roses between now and February.
- Hard prune overgrown shrubs and hedges while they're dormant
- Prune your Japanese maple trees (Acer palmatum) if needed, as they will bleed sap if pruning is done any later.
- Remove and dispose of the foliage of plants such as roses, peonies, iris, daylilies and apples, which are subject to annual fungal leaf diseases.
- Remove decaying leaves and plants from ponds.
- Apply mulches to bulbs, perennials and other small plants once the ground freezes.
- Mulch roses after a hard killing frost where temperatures drop into the upper teens.
- Move containers of shrubs or perennials to sheltered spots; clustering them together helps protect the root systems from frost damage.
- If you plan to have a live Christmas tree, dig the hole before the ground freezes.
- After all the leaves have fallen from the trees, have your gutters cleared.
- Don’t forget to turn off your irrigation system and empty and roll up hoses for storage.
- Take inventory of all your gardening tools. Replace or fix broken items, clean tools, oil and sharpen blades.
- Winterize all power equipment before storage. Change the oil and lubricate moving parts. Either drain fuel systems or mix a gas stabilizing additive into the tank.
- Get your snow blower ready for winter storms.
- Send the lawnmower off for servicing.
- Provide fresh water and food for the birds.
Houseplants/ Indoor Gardening
- Plant amaryllis or other spring bulbs appropriate for forcing for flowers in about eight weeks.
- Pick faded leaves and dead flowers regularly from plants overwintering indoors such as pelargoniums.
- Provide houseplants with adequate sunlight or artificial light.
- Check plants that have been brought inside for signs of insects and treat accordingly.
- Keep a fan running near your houseplants to provide good air circulation.
- Order seeds while the selection is still good.
- Holiday poinsettia plants do best with sun for at least half the day and night temperatures in the 50's or 60's. Let the soil should dry between watering.
November
Flowers
- Plant spring blooming bulbs as long as the ground is workable.
- After the first light frost, lift dahlia, canna and begonia tubers to store indoors.
- Although it’s a bit tricky, caladium bulbs can be brought inside, in their soil, if the temperature has been warm enough. When inside the foliage will naturally die back. Cut off all of the leaves. Then store the pot in a location where the temperature stays around 60°F. Allow the soil to dry out, and don’t water it all winter. About 4-6 weeks before the last frost date, give the plant a thorough watering, and put it in a bright, warm spot. Wait until the temperature outside is above 60°F before planting outside.
- Protect your roses by mounding up soil around the crown after a hard freeze.
- Pick herbs for drying or freezing.
- Keep watering anything that was planted this fall as well as trees and shrubs.
- Before a heavy frost, disconnect your hoses from the faucet to prevent frost damage.
- Have your sprinkler system blown out this month
- Protect any pots or planters that won’t survive outside during the winter.
- Winterize water features such as ponds, fountains, etc.
- Rake leaves and add them to your compost pile or shred them for mulching your beds
- Pull up all annuals that have died back. Cut down dead and dying foliage on perennials.
- Pull out any remaining weeds from garden beds.
- Keep mowing your lawn as long as the grass is growing.
- Remove dead plants from containers and hanging baskets and replace them with evergreen boughs, branches with colorful berries, ornamental grasses, ornamental kale or cabbage, etc.
- Clean bird feeders, install squirrel guards and stock up on seed and suet.
- If there hasn’t been a frost, bring in any houseplants or tropicals still out in the garden!
- Take cuttings of coleus, geraniums and alternanthera, etc. to root in water or pot up and grow indoors.
- Purchase amaryllis or other flower bulbs for forcing.
- Find and prep spring seed starting supplies.
- Order seeds while the selection is still good.
October
Maintenance
- Make sure plants have adequate water to go into winter.
- Clean up dropped fruit and fallen leaves.
- Cover bare soil with organic mulch such as compost, shredded leaves or bark chips.
- Continue weeding, especially annual weeds that are going to seed.
- Cut back herbaceous perennials and compost dead plant material. Bag and dispose of diseased plants material such as peonies with powdery mildew.
- “Prepare new beds for future planting by smothering grass or weeds with a layer of moistened corrugated cardboard or newspaper (2-3 layers thick). Cover this with 2-3 inches of compost or topsoil and water it well. Cover the soil or compost with a layer of mulch: straw or leaves for vegetable beds and wood chips for ornamental beds”. *https://simplysmartgardening.com
- Plant new trees and shrubs.
- Store plants supports for use next year.
- Divide any overgrown perennials.
- Dig up tender tubers and corms of caladium, cannas, dahlias, gladiolus, and tuberous begonias by the end of the month.
- Plant spring flowering bulbs.
- Leave ornamental grasses up over the winter for wildlife and winter interest in the landscape.
- Thin out the oldest branches of mature forsythia, lilac, and spirea for better bloom and shape next year.
- Collect and save seeds of favorite plants.
- Apply lime now.
- Aerate the lawn and then over-seed.
- Apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer after the last mowing (late October – early November) for early green-up next spring.
- Harvest the last tomatoes and other vegetables.
- Plant garlic.
- Dry herbs like oregano, lavender and peppermint by hanging batches upside down.
- Herbs such as basil, chives, parsley and chervil can be picked, washed, dried, chopped and mixed with water or olive oil. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays and use a cube whenever you want to add herbs to your recipes.
September
Flowers
- Order spring flowering bulbs immediately in order to have time to plant them before winter.
- Plant Bulbs! Work a little Bulb Booster or 5-10-10 into the bottom of the planting holes.
- Collect seeds and pods from your favorite perennials and annuals.
- Plant pansies, snapdragons, mums and kale.
- Divide and move perennials including lilies, irises, coneflowers, peonies, daylilies and daisies.
- Strawflower, globe amaranth, celosia, sedum, statice, yarrow, and artemisia are a few of the flowers that are easy to dry and preserve for winter bouquets.
- Harvest onions. Allow them to cure on top of the soil for a week.
- Cover rows in the vegetable garden with frost cloth if frost is predicted.
- Harvest your herbs. Wash and store in a freezer bag.
- Spread compost on garden beds that have been cleared of dead material.
- Sow grass seed in bare spots.
- Use a pre-emergent by September 15th to control winter/spring lawn weeds.
- Stop fertilizing trees, shrubs and other ornamentals to prevent winter kill of their new growth.
- Get your houseplants ready to come inside. Inspect for insects. Spray with insecticidal soap a few days before bringing plants inside.
August
General:
- Beat the heat by gardening in the morning and evening hours.
- Shop for bulbs to be planted in the fall.
- Pick vegetables and fruits regularly so the plants keep producing.
- Harvest potatoes and onions.
- Thin out your strawberry plants. Transplant extras into a new bed.
- Plant lettuce, spinach and beets for a fall crop.
- Harvest herbs for immediate use and/or drying or freezing. Basil produces better if cut back regularly.
- Prune back berry bushes that have finished producing.
- At the end of the month, start removing new flowers from eggplants, peppers, squash, and large (not cherry) tomatoes. This trimming will encourage the plant to focus its energy on ripening the fruit that has already started developing.
- Start pansies from seed indoors to plant outdoors in the fall for early spring bloom.
- Continue to deadhead summer flowers that have finished blooming.
- Divide daylilies, iris, hosta and other perennials.
- Stop feeding roses, trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers mid-month. Feeding plants in the late summer and fall encourages new growth that probably won’t survive the winter.
- Feed your pond plants with aquatic plant food tablets.
- If there hasn’t been enough rain, supplement by watering your plants deeply once per week.
- Be on high alert for insect pests. These include thrips, aphids, tomato hornworms, spider mites, red lily beetle, scale, snails, and slugs.
- Remove and dispose (in the trash) diseased foliage on plants.
- Make a list of plants that need thinning or transplanting to other locations in the fall..
- Repot houseplants before bringing them indoors in late summer.
- Keep weeding the garden and refresh the organic matter and mulch in landscape beds.
July
Smart Watering (Copied from: www.arboretum.umn.edu)
Trees and Shrubs
- Water early and late in the day to reduce water loss from evaporation.
- Adjust sprinklers to avoid wasting water on driveways and sidewalks.
- Water long enough to soak the top 8"- 12" of topsoil and stop watering if water is running off due to soil saturation.
- Measure sprinkler output with rain gauges or tuna cans and apply up to 1 1/2" of water at a time.
- Use mulch to retain water and keep roots cooler. Bark, woodchips, gravel, compost or other materials are all beneficial.
- Install a rain sensor to automatically turn your sprinkler system off when it rains.
- Lawns need 1" to 1 1/2" of water per week to stay green. Wait to fertilize until the fall.
- Raise your mower height to shade the grass crown and roots.
- Edge garden beds with a sharp spade or power edger.
Trees and Shrubs
- Newly planted trees and shrubs need a good soaking every week.
- Established trees can also be under stress during periods of little rainfall and benefit from deep watering followed by a layer of mulch.
- Now is the time to prune maples, birch and other trees that bleed.
- Both evergreen and deciduous shrubs may be sheared to keep the foliage full or to fit within the space allotted.
- Inspect fruit trees for suckering water sprouts and prune to remove them. Water sprouts are unsightly and will steal energy from fruiting branches.
- To keep container plants thriving, use a water-soluble fertilizer at ½ the label rate every week.
- Check your containers for moisture frequently during hot and windy weather.
- Annual and perennial flower plants can be added to fill in bare spots or add color at any time.
- Add compost to planting areas to help hold water and water new plants regularly until they are established.
- Deadhead flowering plants such as geraniums, phlox, daylilies and lilies to prevent seed formation, encourage re-bloom and keep plants more attractive.
- Pinch chrysanthemums one last time.
- Don’t allow weeds to go to seed! Mulch will help control weeds, keep the soil cooler and adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down.
- Cut flowers for indoor bouquets and arrangements. Cutting flowers may encourage re-bloom.
- Continue to remove suckers from indeterminate tomato plants.
- Harvest vegetables when they are at optimal size and maturity for best eating quality and improve yields.
June
Vegetables, Flowers and Shrubs
- Early in June plant any remaining vegetables or flowers intended for your summer garden.
- Prune the mums back twice before July 4TH.
- Fertilize roses.
- Stake or cage vegetables and perennials that need some extra support before they grow too large.
- Prune flowering bushes, if needed, to control size after blooming is complete.
- Be on high alert for insect pests and diseases. These include aphids, asparagus beetles, cabbage worms, Japanese beetles, bagworms, cutworms, tomato hornworms, scale, snails, red lily beetle, slugs, leaf spot, mildew, and rust.
- Use netting over ripening berry bushes to keep the birds from eating them.
- In June and July- make softwood cuttings of buddleia, weigela, Rose-of-Sharon, roses and hydrangeas, among other shrubs.
- Houseplants such as amaryllis, clivia, begonias and orchids among others, can spend the summer outdoors, in a sheltered location with filtered bright light (not direct sun). Pinch back and repot those that need it as you transition them, and feed regularly.
- Create some container gardens for your patio or front entrance.
Garden Maintenance
- Mulch your garden to help with weed control.
- Divide spring-flowering bulbs while they still have foliage or mark the location of any that you will be dividing in fall.
- When bulb foliage dies, you can pull up the bulbs, clean and dry them and store them in a dark, cool place for fall planting.
- An inch of water a week is ideal for your garden. Soak deeply in the root zone.
- Empty saucers or pots that collect rain water- the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos to lay their eggs. Now is the time to check your garden for such breeding grounds and routinely empty them out.
- Check each garden bed once a week for weeds that are not only unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from your plants.
- Give garden beds a clean edge.
May
Maintenance:
- Finish preparing your planting beds by adding organic material and soil amendments.
- Lightly cultivate planting beds and remove weeds. Consider using Preen, or another pre-emergent weed preventer to cut down on weeding.
- Divide large perennials to make new beds
- Cage your tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants when you plant them.
- It’s time to thin out your fruit trees. Make sure there is approximately six inches of space between fruit bud.
- Set supports for floppy plants, like delphinium, lilium, dahlias and peonies.
- Set up sprinklers and start a regular watering program. Your lawn and plants need at least an inch of water a week.
- Mulch landscape beds, adding a two to three-inch layer of bark mulch, nuggets or wood chips to help reduce weeds and conserve moisture.
- Deadhead bulb plants as the flowers fade, but allow foliage to die back naturally in order to feed the bulbs for next year’s display.
- Continue to apply deer and rabbit repellents.
- Aerate and fertilize your lawn around Memorial Day.
- Edge beds to keep things looking neat and tidy.
- Trim lilac bushes after they bloom.
- Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants.
- Prune spring flowering shrubs that have finished blooming.
- Fertilize summer blooming flowers, roses and fruit trees.
- Plant some container gardens.
- “Lily leaf beetles often show up first in spring on leaves of the crown imperial (Fritillaria). Check both sides of the leaves and down inside the center whorl of leaves. Also check the undersides of leaves for tiny orange eggs. The larvae have orange, brown, or greenish yellow bodies that are sometimes hidden under their excrement. Hand-picking the adults and the egg masses is the easiest control method.” http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/FactSheets/gardening-tips-may.php
Planting:
- When the soil temperature reaches 60° F, it’s time to plant tomatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, peppers, cucumbers, and eggplants.
- Plant seed potatoes
- Plant summer annuals after the last frost date, a good rule of thumb is after Mother’s Day.
- Plant summer-flowering bulbs such as gladiolus and dahlias.
- Plant deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, as well as perennials.
Houseplants*:
- Once the threat of frost is gone, and nighttime temperatures stay in the 50s of higher, you can start transitioning your plants outdoors for the summer.
- Place them in a shaded area for a few days and then gradually increase the amount of time they spend in the sun every few days.
- Keep in mind most plants cannot tolerate direct sunlight. Even those who like bright light indoors.
- For most plants morning sun and afternoon shade will keep them thriving outdoors.
- Make sure any shade plants are protected from direct sun at all times.
April
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- Rake debris carefully off beds that hold the earliest bloomers.
- Cut back evergreen or otherwise persistent perennial foliage on hellebores, euphorbia, epimediums, lilyturf and carex.
- Cut down ornamental grasses as close to the base as possible.
- Trim shrubs such as privet hedges.
- Summer flowering shrubs such as spireas and hydrangeas aborescens may be cut back to the ground as they bloom on new wood and will quickly grow back and bloom in mid-summer.
- Divide grasses and perennials if necessary. Discard old woody growth on grasses.
- Seed bare spots in your lawn. Dead grass must be raked out first to make sure the seed is in direct contact with bare soil.
- Remove fallen leaves from water gardens. Get the filters and pumps running once sub-freezing nights cease.
- Order bulk mulch from a local source for delivery. Your arborist may bring you a free truckload of woodchips.
- Minimize soil disturbance by not tilling or pulling weeds too vigorously (which would bring weed seeds to the surface or allow others to sow in).
- Dig out perennial and biennial weeds, such as garlic mustard, when possible before they get a foothold.
- Add an inch of compost as a topdressing, no need to till.
- Fertilize spring bulbs with an appropriate all-natural organic fertilizer as they break dormancy.
- Use cardboard or newspaper to smother areas for new garden beds, or slow down weeds in existing beds.
- Prune Type 2 and 3 clematis. For more information:https://awaytogarden.com/fear-not-how-to-prune-clematis-with-dan-long/
- Pansies and ranunculus are cold hardy and can be planted in outdoor containers. Make sure that you harden them off before planting.
- April showers and cooler temperatures make it a good time to plant trees, shrubs and evergreens.
- Cool season vegetables such as leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, beets, arugula, peas, carrots spinach, radishes and onion sets may be planted outdoors as soon as the soil is dry enough to work.
- Snapdragons, bachelor buttons and sweet pea seed can be planted outside in April as well.
- Plant perennial herbs such as thyme, lavender, oregano, chives, mint, and sage in the garden.
- Clean out bird houses.
- Start your tuberous begonias, canna and dahlia tubers in trays of moistened vermiculite or individual pots of fast-draining potting soil. Grow in a bright, warm spot.
March
What to Plant Indoors:
Garden Maintenance:
Planting Outdoors:
What to Plant Indoors:
- Start seeds approximately six to eight weeks before they’re ready to be transplanted outdoors.
- Start seeds for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants indoors and under grow lights.
- Sow onion seeds providing good light for the seedlings as they emerge. Onions grown from seed will produce the best bulbs and store better than ones started from onion sets.
- Start annual flowers such as ageratum, impatiens, marigolds and petunias.
- it’s time to transplant seed grown cole crops. Put your cabbage, broccoli, and other crops in a cold-frame to give them time to prosper.
- Plant dahlia, canna, tuberous begonia and caladium bulbs in pots or flats using a soil mix containing slow-release fertilizer. Grow them in good light indoors until they are ready to go outside in May.
- Give indoor plants a new lease on life by transplanting them into a larger pot with fresh soil.
- Prune houseplants that might have grown leggy over the winter.
- Purchase a shamrock (oxalis) plant to provide a living, green, St. Patrick’s Day decoration.
Garden Maintenance:
- Force some branches from forsythia, flowering plums or other spring blooming plants in containers of warm water.
- Turn the compost pile to get the compost “cooking” again.
- Send a sample of your soil into your local county extension service office for testing.
- Apply compost or an organic soil amendment to the soil.
- Prune and fertilize rose bushes before buds break.
- Rake leaves and mulch away from garden beds to allow the foliage of spring-flowering bulbs and perennials to poke through.
- Rejuvenate older flowering shrubs that have grown too tall and are not blooming well by cutting the whole plant down to within 3”-4” of the ground.
- Cut back liriope, carex, and tall grasses before new growth begins.
- Deadhead daffodils when the blooms fade, but allow the foliage to die back naturally.
- Don’t walk across your garden when the soil is wet as this practice may lead to compaction, which can cause poor drainage.
- Check your irrigation system.
- Fertilize cool-season lawns (Tall Fescue).
- Apply pre-emergence herbicides to lawns by the time dogwoods bloom.
- When mowing,, don’t remove more than 1/3 of the height at any one mowing; leave clippings on the lawn unless they would smother the grass.
- Practice slug control.
- Clean out birdbaths and feeders.
Planting Outdoors:
- Plant cold hardy summer bulbs such as lilium at the end of the month.
- Plant peas (late March).
- Plant rose bushes, shrubs, trees and perennials as soon as you can work the soil.
- Divide and replant daylilies, hostas, peonies, Shasta daisies, asters, boltonia, phlox, rudbechia and chrysanthemums when new growth is 1-2 inches high.
- Plant hardy annuals such as pansies, ranunculus.
- Wait until the soil dries some and warms up before planting summer bulbs such as dahlias in the ground.
February
- Clean, sharpen and organize gardening tools
- Put suet out for the birds; or, spread some peanut butter on the trunk of a tree.
- Force forsythia, pussywillow, cherry or quince branches in water.
- Inspect stored dahlia, canna, and other tubers for rot or drying out.
- Prune apple and pear trees and summer blooming shrubs while dormant.
- Brush heavy snow off hedges and evergreens to prevent the branches from snapping.
- Cut back old hellebore foliage to make them more attractive before blooms appear.
- Cut back geraniums to have a bushier plant come summer.
- Inventory old seeds and check for germination to see what’s still viable
- Start seeds indoors of slow growing annuals such as snapdragons, coleus and sweet alyssum.
- Winter sow seeds of snapdragons, larkspur, rudbeckia, verbascum etc.
- Toss poppy seeds on top of soil (not mulch) where you’d like them to grow. They won’t mind snow!
- Order spring-planted bulbs and tubers.
- Order perennials, trees and shrubs for early spring planting.
- Give your houseplants more humidity by placing them on trays filled with pebbles and water. Pots should sit on the pebbles, not in the water.
- Rid houseplants plants of fluffy, white mealy bugs by touching the offender with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. Insecticidal soap or Neem oil sprays can be applied to most houseplants for the control of insect pests such as spider mites.
- Tour a botanic garden conservatory or garden center to lighten the winter doldrums.
January
Sign up for online catalogs if your mailbox isn’t already overflowing!
Sign up for online catalogs if your mailbox isn’t already overflowing!
- Place orders for seeds to get your favorites before they sell out!
- Last chance to plant the bulbs that you forgot about (as long as the ground isn’t frozen).
- Remove yellowing foliage and pinch back annuals and tropicals overwintering indoors.
- Rotate houseplants to keep them lush on all sides.
- Check your houseplants for insects and/or disease and treat immediately.
- Clean the foliage on your houseplants by dusting, misting or a warm water bath.
- Repot houseplants that are overgrown or leggy.
- Stock up on seed starting mix, fertilizer, deer repellent and other supplies you may need come spring.
- Order online containers, tomato cages, trellises, and other supports as stock may be limited.
- Binge watch some gardening YouTube and peruse those gardening books and magazines you’ve put off reading.
- Use the January thaw as incentive to go outside and pull up winter weeds such as chickweed and dig out wild onions.
- Purchase an inexpensive herb or mini orchid at Trader Joe’s to put on your windowsill.
- Keep putting out food and water for the birds.